I read this post on a blog by crime historian Laura James called CLEWS: Your Home for Historic True Crime ( which I found in the "links" section of this website), on a page she dedicated to the Keddie murders case-kinda interesting:

I live in Plumas County and I have had a long time theory on who did it. Take a look at the composite drawing made from the child from the other room, you know, the one they said was most likely inaccurate due to his young tender age...well, aftere that, look at the photo of the detective (DeCrona)...similiar! Indeed. I have suspected him for years. He was dining at the Keddie Resort Restaurant that same evening. He would know how to do the job silently...he has been known to be violent...I am serious!

Posted by: Kim | October 20, 2009 at 08:39 PM

"Kim" didn't say why she thought he would be involved, but still, a pretty unsettling theory nonetheless, especially considering that he was one of the lead investigators on the case.

The problem with any of this is that Rod DeCrona, in 1981, did not resemble the sketch. Also, the claim that DeCrona "has been known to be violent" is odd. Based on what? The fact that was a law enforcement officer who, on occasion, was forced to use force in order to protect himself. (I know of only one instance in which DeCrona used force and it was necessary because a suspect was intoxicated and assaulting DeCrona at the time of the arrest.) Also, DeCrona was not a lead investigator on the case. He was a young deputy at the time who had virtually no involvement with the case.

Thanks for clearing that up. It sounds as if "Kim" didn't know what she was talking about, or maybe she said that stuff about DeCrona out of spite-because of a bad run-in with him in the past, perhaps? She said she was from Plumas County, so it could've been possible for them to have crossed paths, so to speak.

I shouldn't have called him a "lead investigator-I had seen his name come up so often in many of the reports that I read here that that was something I just assumed. My mistake.

I remember reading in one of the local articles that DeCrona said he wasn't one of the responding officers but he was on the scene the following day. He may have been a junior detective at the time but he has was a lead investigator in later years up to his retirement. In fact, the article discussing his retirement mentions he was planning on continuing to investigate this case even after retirement. I've been under the impression he took a load of case documents home with him when he retired. I could be wrong. I'm not saying he was involved in the crimes but I do think he has been VERY involved in the investigations.

I never really thought he was involved, anyway, even after I read that post by "Kim-"having only known about this case for a couple of months, it was my first time hearing this particular theory, and wanted to post about it here to see what others thought.

not sure wrote:I remember reading in one of the local articles that DeCrona said he wasn't one of the responding officers but he was on the scene the following day. He may have been a junior detective at the time but he has was a lead investigator in later years up to his retirement. In fact, the article discussing his retirement mentions he was planning on continuing to investigate this case even after retirement. I've been under the impression he took a load of case documents home with him when he retired. I could be wrong. I'm not saying he was involved in the crimes but I do think he has been VERY involved in the investigations.

Yes, he was on the scene the following day and several subsequent days because the sheriff's office rotated a group of deputies over a six- to- seven-day period to preserve the crime scene by making sure that unauthorized individuals did not simply walk into the house.

I am not sure what a "junior" detective is, but DeCrona, at some point in his career, was promoted to the investigations unit. This was many years after the homicides. DeCrona was a patrol deputy, nothing more than that, when the homicides occurred. At this point, the Keddie case was being worked by another member of the sheriff's office (Don Stoy). Not DeCrona. He was NOT "VERY involved" in the investigation. However, like all sworn officers who had worked at the department for a long time and who possessed institutional memory of the case, DeCrona had an interest in the case being solved and was highly knowledgeable about case. But he was not, and is not, alone in that regard.

When DeCrona retired, he did NOT take home a load of case documents. I am not even sure what that really means.

It sounds like you have been pretty close to the case and probably know a lot more than I do about that part of it. But I have been told by people close to the case that DeCrona did spend time working on it and that he planned on taking documents home with him to work on when he retired. When that was said to me I was astounded, thinking how unethical that would be for PCSO to allow. If that wasn't the case then I stand corrected and thank goodness PCSO didn't allow him to take them out of their custody.

Rod DeCrona is one of the scummiest sacs of shit ever to wear an LE uniform. He's admitted to taking case files home. He's admitted Dee Lake's evidence car was seized and destroyed by PCSO. News reports of his career as a uniformed criminal speak for themselves.